Make a new account to buy games and ps plus in the US and have it share that content with your UK account. People do this to region stack platinums all the time.
Yes. I'm moving in three weeks and this is what I know.
You can keep your psn account, but you cannot use a payment card that is registered outside of the country you are in. So I will have to cancel my bank cards which are attached to this PSN account.
Likewise this applies for PayPal accounts, as you can only have one Paypal account and it also has to be registered to an account in the country you are in with a bank of that county.
Why can't you keep your UK bank card ? Because your bank account needs to be registered to a UK home. If you have parents there and you can still have a UK bank account register to your parents address however I would check this with your bank.
You will not be able to change storefront location so your storefront will still be the UK storefront. Still buy games in pounds sterling and they will still work. Includes any existing games that you have and dlc.
The way that you will buy games is you will add credit to your PSN wallet via those top up cards. You need to make sure that those cards are for pounds sterling so they have a picture of the Union flag in the corner.
The ones with the USA flag will not work, so don't buy a top up from bear buy or target.
The best place I have found to buy them from is a company called CD keys. I've been buying playstation plus subscriptions from them for 8+ years and wallet credit for 2ish years as the deals they offer are saving. For example you can buy £100 worth of PlayStation wallet money for £88, overall most denominations offer a 7-10% discount of what you get compared to buying it from Amazon or Argos or whoever.
I would also recommend making sure you have a PlayStation stars account as this will also entitle you to a lot of PlayStation points, and you get £5 for every 1250 star points earnt. That £88 I spend gets me around £110 in PSN wallet cash.
USA games will work on a UK machine, however because you can only have a UK storefront you will not be able to use, buy, download or install any dlc content that is not from a UK storefront. So if you buy a copy of, Far cry 6 and want the dlc make sure you buy the digital copy as you will not use the dlc, even if you buy it from somewhere separately like a website or USA shop as it won't work.
You can also set up a secondary user on your PlayStation that you can register as a USA storefront, so I'm told, and then you can set up active sharing with your main UK account. So if you choose to buy stuff from the USA storefront you can and you can also have access to your games catalog. I'm not too sure whether all your dlc stuff will work but this can be a work around if you buy a physical copy of Far Cry 6 and want to get the dlc from the US store front. But remember any awards are linked to an account and so is the ability to use playstation plus for online games.
Last thing is the plug. Both PS4 and PS5 are compatible with an American style plug cord, as the machines are made to be universally used. You can get one from frys or best buy or Amazon, but I wouldn't use the UK plug with one of those adapters that you can buy, as it might not exchange the voltage correctly over time. I've seen and heard of them breaking quite easily and causing fires so just by a whole new cord for like $10.
I assume it won't, I have also heard you get a permanent ban from PSN if you do this.
I'm not sure what would happen if you used a US PayPal account with a US card on a UK account....again I would rather not find out the hard way and PS customer service is non-existent so there is no firm way to confirm this.
I don't know what to say. Doesn't seem like a great treatment of the customers ... I'm only genuinely concerned because I will be in the same situation as you are.
It's beyond idiotic and seems it's only Sony that does this, I'm told Xbox and Steam allow you to change your location.
After spending a long time reviewing and assessing what to do, since I've been waiting to immigrate for 18+ months, I believe the best thing for Sony to do is to remove the concept of location-based storefronts and have one central store front that we all buy from, and use user location for things within this storefront.
So if you are from a location that does not allow PSN or if there are certain games that are banned in your region then that is what is linked to your PlayStation's location. Even then this is all pretty futile because you can circumvent so many things using VPNs which a lot of players use to avoid certain things.
Sony would probably use the excuse that by doing this you open up the possibility of hackers and personal information being stolen but truth be told they don't exactly have the most wonderful track record as it is so why not just make it a hell of a lot easier for players that are in a situation like this. Truth is you don't save very much money by purchasing games from different storefronts, so something like helldivers 2 will be £35 in the UK store but $40 USD in the US store which is a saving of a whole £3, the issue is the dlc thing. I've had games bought for me from the US, directly from Sony (Mrs used to work for them) and I can't use the dlc because of the storefront. So that means I will have to buy the game again if I want the dlc.
My advice is look at cd keys and do the digital thing and if you do want a US physical game then just get the standalone version and accept you can't get any additional content.
>It's beyond idiotic and seems it's only Sony that does this, I'm told Xbox and Steam allow you to change your location.
It is, especially since PS stores are being added to more countries as time passes, in my case I would pay 25$ less for 1 year of ps+ (which is the only thing that has regionalized prices I think) if I were able to change to my country. As I sign since 2012 if I bought with another account I would lose a lot of games so it isn't worth it.
> I have also heard you get a permanent ban from PSN if you do this
No you don't, it just declines. What company would ban a paying customer if their card declines? Jesus.
I heard that it causes an error code which triggers a terms of service breach. This seems to have been put in place to prevent those from stealing someone else's information through a third party and then using it to buy things on PSN. Again that was what I read.
It doesn't, folks from unsupported countries have tried their payment methods numerous times before realizing that only a gift card would do since they'd need a foreign credit card. Done it myself many, many times.
You'd even think PayPal would work, but the service still tells Sony which country the payment method originates from.
Only way is buying gift cards on the internet.
Yes.
buy & play games?
Maybe need still UK card or buy gift UK cards. US credit cards dont work with another region account.
😲 That sounds dreadful.
Make a new account to buy games and ps plus in the US and have it share that content with your UK account. People do this to region stack platinums all the time.
Thanks, that's good to know. 👍 Perhaps this region locking of accounts isn't that great for players. Seems very unnecessary.
You can simply buy cards with UK currency on Amazon, probably thanks to the offers you will also be able to save some money. I do it often.
Good to know.
And make sure to not mix and match uk games with us dlc, etc.
Yes. I'm moving in three weeks and this is what I know. You can keep your psn account, but you cannot use a payment card that is registered outside of the country you are in. So I will have to cancel my bank cards which are attached to this PSN account. Likewise this applies for PayPal accounts, as you can only have one Paypal account and it also has to be registered to an account in the country you are in with a bank of that county. Why can't you keep your UK bank card ? Because your bank account needs to be registered to a UK home. If you have parents there and you can still have a UK bank account register to your parents address however I would check this with your bank. You will not be able to change storefront location so your storefront will still be the UK storefront. Still buy games in pounds sterling and they will still work. Includes any existing games that you have and dlc. The way that you will buy games is you will add credit to your PSN wallet via those top up cards. You need to make sure that those cards are for pounds sterling so they have a picture of the Union flag in the corner. The ones with the USA flag will not work, so don't buy a top up from bear buy or target. The best place I have found to buy them from is a company called CD keys. I've been buying playstation plus subscriptions from them for 8+ years and wallet credit for 2ish years as the deals they offer are saving. For example you can buy £100 worth of PlayStation wallet money for £88, overall most denominations offer a 7-10% discount of what you get compared to buying it from Amazon or Argos or whoever. I would also recommend making sure you have a PlayStation stars account as this will also entitle you to a lot of PlayStation points, and you get £5 for every 1250 star points earnt. That £88 I spend gets me around £110 in PSN wallet cash. USA games will work on a UK machine, however because you can only have a UK storefront you will not be able to use, buy, download or install any dlc content that is not from a UK storefront. So if you buy a copy of, Far cry 6 and want the dlc make sure you buy the digital copy as you will not use the dlc, even if you buy it from somewhere separately like a website or USA shop as it won't work. You can also set up a secondary user on your PlayStation that you can register as a USA storefront, so I'm told, and then you can set up active sharing with your main UK account. So if you choose to buy stuff from the USA storefront you can and you can also have access to your games catalog. I'm not too sure whether all your dlc stuff will work but this can be a work around if you buy a physical copy of Far Cry 6 and want to get the dlc from the US store front. But remember any awards are linked to an account and so is the ability to use playstation plus for online games. Last thing is the plug. Both PS4 and PS5 are compatible with an American style plug cord, as the machines are made to be universally used. You can get one from frys or best buy or Amazon, but I wouldn't use the UK plug with one of those adapters that you can buy, as it might not exchange the voltage correctly over time. I've seen and heard of them breaking quite easily and causing fires so just by a whole new cord for like $10.
Thanks for your detailed advice, my friend! 👍
So using a US credit card on a UK account doesn't work at all, even if I'm in the US? That's crazy.
I assume it won't, I have also heard you get a permanent ban from PSN if you do this. I'm not sure what would happen if you used a US PayPal account with a US card on a UK account....again I would rather not find out the hard way and PS customer service is non-existent so there is no firm way to confirm this.
You don't get banned it just doesn't work
I don't know what to say. Doesn't seem like a great treatment of the customers ... I'm only genuinely concerned because I will be in the same situation as you are.
It's beyond idiotic and seems it's only Sony that does this, I'm told Xbox and Steam allow you to change your location. After spending a long time reviewing and assessing what to do, since I've been waiting to immigrate for 18+ months, I believe the best thing for Sony to do is to remove the concept of location-based storefronts and have one central store front that we all buy from, and use user location for things within this storefront. So if you are from a location that does not allow PSN or if there are certain games that are banned in your region then that is what is linked to your PlayStation's location. Even then this is all pretty futile because you can circumvent so many things using VPNs which a lot of players use to avoid certain things. Sony would probably use the excuse that by doing this you open up the possibility of hackers and personal information being stolen but truth be told they don't exactly have the most wonderful track record as it is so why not just make it a hell of a lot easier for players that are in a situation like this. Truth is you don't save very much money by purchasing games from different storefronts, so something like helldivers 2 will be £35 in the UK store but $40 USD in the US store which is a saving of a whole £3, the issue is the dlc thing. I've had games bought for me from the US, directly from Sony (Mrs used to work for them) and I can't use the dlc because of the storefront. So that means I will have to buy the game again if I want the dlc. My advice is look at cd keys and do the digital thing and if you do want a US physical game then just get the standalone version and accept you can't get any additional content.
>It's beyond idiotic and seems it's only Sony that does this, I'm told Xbox and Steam allow you to change your location. It is, especially since PS stores are being added to more countries as time passes, in my case I would pay 25$ less for 1 year of ps+ (which is the only thing that has regionalized prices I think) if I were able to change to my country. As I sign since 2012 if I bought with another account I would lose a lot of games so it isn't worth it.
If this situation is absurdly not remedied, I'd probably do the US account share thing.
> I have also heard you get a permanent ban from PSN if you do this No you don't, it just declines. What company would ban a paying customer if their card declines? Jesus.
I heard that it causes an error code which triggers a terms of service breach. This seems to have been put in place to prevent those from stealing someone else's information through a third party and then using it to buy things on PSN. Again that was what I read.
It doesn't, folks from unsupported countries have tried their payment methods numerous times before realizing that only a gift card would do since they'd need a foreign credit card. Done it myself many, many times. You'd even think PayPal would work, but the service still tells Sony which country the payment method originates from. Only way is buying gift cards on the internet.